Katju wants cops, politicians tried for cartoonist Aseem Trivedi's ordeal
10 Sep 2012
Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju today said the arrest and wrongful confinement of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi is a "serious criminal offence", and that the politicians and police officials behind it should be arrested and tried under section 342 of the PIC.
''If you are arresting a person who has not committed a crime, then you are committing a crime. So, these politicians and these police officers should be arrested and made to face trial," he said.
Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, said this, while delivering a lecture on 'self regulation in electronic media in India' at Anna University in Chennai.
Trivedi was arrested on Saturday following a complaint filed by the Republican Party of India that he had put up banners mocking the Indian Constitution during Anna Hazare's rally in Mumbai last year and that he had also uploaded obscene content on his website.
Trivedi was arrested on Saturday on a complaint filed in December, and was produced before a holiday court in Bandra on Sunday, which remanded him in police custody till 16 September.
The cartoonist was slapped with sedition and other charges and was produced before a holiday court in Bandra, in Mumbai on Sunday, which sent him to police custody till 16 September.
The police, however, said they no longer wanted custody of Tiwari as their investigations in the case were over and his custodial interrogation was not needed.